By now, most of you will be familiar with the EUROPA stamps initiative that we talk about every May... but this year, we have a special treat for you! Our diligent interviewer Clarisse (aka CStar9) talked with Agnieszka Trząskowska, Chairwoman of the PostEurop Stamps & Philately Working Group, who answered some questions about the EUROPA stamp program! Here they are to give us more insight into its history and ambitious future. How would you say EUROPA stamps are connected to the individuality of each European country, and connected also holistically to the character of Europe as a w ..read more

Our team member Iris (aka scrutiny) has recently tried a fun postal-themed game, and we thought this could be an interesting topic for a blog post, as I bet there are a lot of other gamers in the community. ?‍? So here she is, to tell us all about it! "Have you ever wondered what it would be like processing mail in a post office if you had no hands? Specifically, if you were a pair of exotic birds with no hands? This is the premise of a video game named KeyWe, that was first brought to our attention by postcrosser Nathalie (aka Ezri). She mentioned it on the forum the day the game was release ..read more

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too! This March, I had the honour of attending my childhood best friend's wedding, which got me wondering about different wedding customs around the world. Sometimes weddings are religious, and sometimes they're more like big parties, and they can vary a lot with local customs and traditions. So that's the prompt for this month: tell us about ..read more

Today is Earth Day, which means it's time for our annual report on the expansion of Postcrossing's tiny forest! Some years ago, as part of our commitment to minimizing Postcrossing's ecological footprint, we started organizing a new type of meetup: one without postcards, in which people roll up their sleeves and plant trees instead! This year, it happened on a bright sunny day in early February, and the location chosen was adjacent to last year's plot — which was perfect, because we had a nice view over last year's trees, and also of the ocean in the distance! If you're new to these blog ..read more

Jackie Morris is an artist and writer based in Wales. Her Wild Cards postcard set, a collaboration with writer Robert Macfarlane, is grounded in their best-selling book series, The Lost Spells and The Lost Words. Jackie graciously paused between creations for a conversation with Clarisse (aka Cstar9) about her recent book projects, her lifetime love of postcards, and the importance of painting as if you have paws. All the art pieces in this story are copyright Jackie Morris, used with her permission! You’ve described your work with Robert Macfarlane as a kind of alchemy. How did your collabo ..read more

Hi everyone! Some time ago, the Little Mail Carriers visited the third-largest island in the world: Borneo (also known as Kalimantan in Indonesian language)! It is divided among three countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei) and sits right on the Equator, so the weather is always warm there. They were really curious to start exploring, so they joined Norita (aka noritaa) for some adventures! On an early Sunday morning, our host woke us up to go to Siring's recreational park, located at the heart of the capital of South Kalimantan, Banjarmasin city. This park was built on the shores of the r ..read more

Rose Wong is a New York-based illustrator whose work can be found in the popular Flower Box set, and in the pages of The New York Times, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and more. Last year, Clarisse (aka CStar9) caught up with Rose via web-cast in her Brooklyn studio. All the art pictured in this interview is Rose's work! When did you first identify as a visual artist? You’ve said that as a child, you used to make intricate drawings in Microsoft Paint. I’ve always been a visual artist. It was something I just liked doing. No one prompted me to do it. I really wish I had the forethought of sav ..read more

Today we bring you a heartwarming and international friendship story, made of many postcards, emails, meetups attended together... and Kofola, a soft drink from Czech Republic! Anni (aka stetsflauschig) tells the story: "So I want to share about my longest Postcrossing friendship, which is still holding up! ? I think it started in 2014, when I organized the first Postcrossing meeting in my city, Dresden. Back in those days my username was Fireblossom. My dear friend Vladena (ybur) attended the meeting with her two daughters and some other Czech postcrossers. It was such a lovely time and I wa ..read more

One of my Christmas presents this year was a book on handwriting: Script & Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, by Kitty Burns Florey. It wasn't a hint about my handwriting, though it'd probably be fair enough if it was: this book has been on my wishlist for a while to review here on Postcrossing's blog! So that's what I'll be talking about this time. One of the reasons I got curious about handwriting is that, when I look at the postcards I receive, I can sometimes tell what country it's from just based on the handwriting. Which makes sense: some countries have strong traditions of ..read more

Sometime ago, we stumbled on this unexpected topic on the forum, where postcrosser Meowpurr tells her adventures of mailing postcards from the deepest postbox in Germany... so of course, we were intrigued and wanted to bring it over to the blog, so that more of you learned about it. Here she is, ready to take us all along on a dive into the deep unknown! "As someone who loves both postcards and the underwater world, you guys can imagine I’m thrilled to announce that… Germany finally has its own underwater mailbox! It’s 19 meters deep inside Kreidesee Hemmoor, a lake north of Hamburg, and a ge ..read more